Beside the powerful quad core Cortex A9 processor, what makes HI-802 really attractive is the openness of the platform, as Freescale released full documentation, as well as Linux and Android Source for i.MX6. This should allow the developers’ community to port diverse Linux distributions on top of Android and Ubuntu provided by Freescale, without spending time reverse engineering the SoC specs like is the case with Chinese SoC from companies such as AllWinner or Rockchip.

[Update: There is also GK802 on Geekbuying ($99) which is based on Freescale i.MX6 but with a different casing. Geekbuying explains they only have 30 Beta samples. So I’m not sure of the status of the device on Aliexpress (I’ve asked) The shop on Aliexpress (Kimdecent) replied they’ll have 50 samples which should ship by the end of next week (~15 December).]

Purchased one when they had PayPal button opened, before they replaced it with armdevices website. So still have no information. I can understand that it takes more than 1 month to deliver to Kazakhstan from China, but they could at least write on their website the status …. A bit angry.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the HI802 has the EXACT same bugs as the GK802.
I’m pretty sure they use the same android build.

I have a GK802. It’s quite nice. At 720p I got a 10155 in antutu. At 1080p I got 9827.
It feels smoother than the RK3066 devices.
There a a few bugs, but a couple of those were related to my older 720p HDTV not reporting proper EDID information.
(same thing with the motorola lapdock)
I picked up another 1080p HDTV and it’s been a much better experience.
Wifi works well and connects at 150mbps. It seems to have better range than my other sticks.
Out of the box currently the Play Store needs to be fixed and it needs to be rooted.
I have fixed the Play Store and rooted my GK802, future updates for the GK802 should include these fixes.

I really like the fact that it has a internal micro sd card that it boots off of. I’ve been successful in replacing the 8GB with a 16GB micro sd.
Linux should be pretty easy to get running. I’ve ordered a 3.3v serial/usb adapter so I can read the uboot, interrupt it, and send options.
I had ubuntu booting, but my main linux dev system died and I’ve lost ALL my old files. So I have to start fresh.
I’ll also need to compile another kernel to get wifi/bluetooth working in ubuntu.

1. I’m looking for one of these type of devices, HDMI stick, that I can completely create my own Android distro for. If this stick has a git repo where I can start from please point me to that. Will it have drivers for all the hardware including video and video codecs?

2. For booting from the SD Card, is it the standard setup for Android devices?

@Harley
You may have already seen it, but they had a demo with XBMC (Android) – http://youtu.be/aqN13B_TUes?t=1m12s some time ago. I doubt it has HW acceleration yet. For Linux, the media libs appears to be available, so it may come sooner rather than later.

Tested again in antutu 3.0.2 just now.
720p: 10109
1080p: 9643
I’ve got a bunch of stuff installed on this now. So that may come into play a bit.
Also it’s only running at 996mhz.
The lower cpu speed is really what is holding this back at the moment.
The freescale imx6 is a bit on the low end for quad core soc’s.
The GK802 is comes with ICS.
I’m pretty sure that score would be better with a newer android build. I saw a decent difference in scores between ICS and JB on other devices.

@Fueler
I’m not sure if they have a git server setup.
You should check freescale and see if they offer the android sources.(I believe they do).

The sd card boot setup on the imx6 devices is a little weird.
From what I’ve seen of the android image:
The u-boot is in unpartitioned space at the beginning of the drive(starts at 0x400)
The boot.img is in the first partition, but is not formatted.
I grabbed the boot.img with dd by doing a dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=boot.img bs=512K.
I was able to split the boot.img.ramdisk.gz and boot.img.kernel using split_boot.pl
So that part is pretty standard.

@deadhp1
I forgot about the lower frequencies that partially explains the relatively low scores. Different Android versions may also explain it.
Rockchip RK3066 tablets score about 12,000 ~ 13,000 in Antutu 3.0 (http://dragondevs.com/index.php?/topic/993-battle-of-the-rockchips/.) If i recall correctly RK3066 HDMI dongles are clocked lower, so they may be closer to 9,000. Still not far from i.MX6.

@deadhp1 Do u think should I get this for my lapdock? or because it’s not reporting the proper EDID information to the screen may be a big issue for the lapdock and do u think is it fixable?
Thanks for the info deadhp1.

@Murad
When I boot it up with the lapdock it displays 740×576.
If I boot it up with an external power source and wait 8 seconds before opening the lid it will display at the proper resolution. This also works on tv’s with upsupported EDID’s. However it can cause problems with audio(on tv’s) the lapdock seems to be fine after that.

@Paul
It has those pins. I’m just waiting for my 3.3v usb to serial adapter to come so I can get a working uboot for linux on it.
Ideally I’d like to setup the uboot so that it boots android from the internal micro sd, unless it detects a uboot on the external sd.

I’ve also seen that there is a port of GRUB to uboot in progress. This might make it possible to dual boot off of one micro sd card.

“Now we decide stop selling this model now.
It have many problems now, Includes unstable firmware, USB port don’t work, don’t compatible with many mouse/ keyboard.
Some website Online video stream not work, etc. (we try to install the GK802 firmware and the problem is same)
We sold out xx pcs and many customers complain now. We will wait for a new firmware and estimate the quality again.”

@cnxsoft
I’ve got two GK802’s now. (a beta device and a production version)
I can say that the firmware doesn’t seem unstable.
My production version has been running almost constantly since I got it. I don’t think it’s crashed once that I can remember.
My beta GK802 hasn’t been as lucky since it now has serial lines soldered to it for linux dev purposes. It spends most of it’s time waiting for new kernels to build. So you can imagine that when it’s running it’s not all that stable.(Unless I put a micro-sd with android in it.)

I can tell you that the mouse/keyboard will not work if you’re using a different adapter than what came with it.
The HI802 did not come with this adapter, so the usb port will not work.
For example you can’t power the GK802 from a laptop usb port and use the mouse.
I’m just guessing here, but most likely the rx/tx lines are shorted, or have a resistor on them in the stock adapter.
I’ll be testing out my idea soon with a couple of custom cables to see if I can get my mouse working when powered by a different adapter.

As far as not being compatible with keyboard/mice I’ve tested about 15 different models and they all worked.
Off the top of my head I can list several models that work.
-Measy RC13
-Rii RT-MWK01
-Rii Mini i8
-Logitech k400
-several off brand wired/wireless usb mice and keyboards
The only time they didn’t work was when the GK802 was not powered by the proper adapter.

I’d like to know what Online Video streams they tried that didn’t work. I haven’t run into one yet.
I’ve even got the modified HBO GO app working on mine.

I’ll keep working on the GK802’s since they are just about my favorite android tv stick so far.

@deadhp1
“My beta GK802 hasn’t been as lucky since it now has serial lines soldered to it for linux dev purposes. ” => linux soon? 🙂
(There are stores on Aliexpress sellilng GK802 & Hi802’s from $95 shipped at the moment BTW)

QUOTE:
“I can tell you that the mouse/keyboard will not work if you’re using a different adapter than what came with it.
The HI802 did not come with this adapter, so the usb port will not work.”

What lead are you talking about ?
I have the GK802 and i did not get a USB lead for inserting keyboards ?
I only a otg power lead to PC which you can only plug in if the ‘power lead’ is unplugged.
Which means i cannot power up the gk802 to add a keyboard.

I was talking about the ac adapter which plugs into the micro-usb port.
It seems that without this adapter the full size usb port doesn’t work right, it acts like a usb hub.
In earlier versions of firmware/hardware for the GK802 if I powered it from my computer and plugged a mouse into the GK802 I wouldn’t be able to use the mouse on the GK802, instead the mouse would get installed on my computer. It would then work on my computer.